Older is Better: A Trope That's Become A Reflex For Many Writers

Ertrand raised his torch higher, examining the tomb of the ancient king. The name was incomprehensible, but the sheathed sword on the casket glimmered when he wiped at the dust. Taking hold of the hilt, he drew the blade, and examined it. It had the distinct sheen of the old styles of metal smithing, and the dry air of the tomb had kept it mostly intact. He slid it back into the sheathe carefully, and lifted it as if it were made of glass.

"Some collector is going to keep you on his wall," Ertrand said, wrapping his find in soft padding. "For my money, I prefer a sword that isn't so brittle it splinters when you strike a shield with it."

"Of course it's valuable! What? No, I have a high-carbon steel blade for a reason, you idiot!"

This is a scene we almost never seen in fantasy stories, and it's because of a trope that has bothered me more and more the longer I've been swimming around genre fiction; Older is Better. While this trope isn't inherently bad, I do think that too often writers in general (and those of us who work in sci-fi and fantasy in particular) reach for it out of reflex. We don't stop and think about whether it's a trope that makes our story better, or if it adds to the tale we're actually telling... we just put it in there for the same reason elves have pointy ears, and dwarves have beards.

Because that's how so many other writers have done it.

What Does It Say About Your Setting?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of this trope out there. Conan's Atlantean steel sword that can slash through Cimmerian blades and survive hundreds of years in a dank cave with impunity, for instance. The missing STCs from the dark age of technology in Warhammer 40k that represent the pinnacle of ancient human achievement. Most of the old elven weapons we see in Tolkien's works that are leaps and bounds beyond what even dwarven princes are given to wear at their sides when adventuring.

However, this trope goes beyond weapons and gear; it can extend to everything in your universe.

Especially your magic.

Are the ruins of the old empires huge, sweeping things that were built with techniques that have been lost to the ages? Were their enchantments so potent that nothing today's wizards can conjure can match them for glory? Did the old ones have the skill to weave fabrics that could endure for generations, and fit themselves to each wearer?

All of that stuff is cool, but it poses a central question that you as the author should consider... why?

Humans (as most of the time we have humans as our core races) are really inventive creatures, and when you ask a few generations of us to reverse-engineer something, our results can be rather startling. All you need to do is read the rant on why humans are so central in Star Trek to get the impression that we are both extremely dangerous as a people, but also extremely inventive.

The first version of this question you need to answer is "Why can't that ancient thing be made anymore?"

The route most authors go for keeping ancient achievements from being a part of the modern age is that the technique for doing so was lost to time, which is a historically valid option if you're looking for real-world examples. We have amazing metal working skills today, for example, but we have zero clue how an iron pillar in Delhi has stood for over 1,600 years without a single speck of rust. And sometimes if the technique fell out of favor, or it was rigidly controlled and those capable of making the thing died, the knowledge could be lost.

The second question you need to answer, and arguably the more important one, is "Why hasn't anyone figured out how to do it again?"

This is where things can get sticky, but where you have a lot more options. For example, is the pursuit of independent knowledge considered heresy (as you see in Warhammer's setting), stifling any meaningful efforts to recreate these ancient miracles? Are there not enough examples of the thing to reverse-engineer it (or is doing so a particularly dangerous process)? Or, my personal favorite, is a key ingredient for the old process no longer around, making it impossible to recreate in the modern setting (the bones of a certain extinct animal, a seed from a plant that was harvested into oblivion, etc.)? If something is not just difficult to create, but out and out impossible, then it makes the surviving versions even more impressive. But it could also mean that rituals, rites, and other tools are truly beyond the grasp of your protagonists, unless they re-discover the element needed to make the old methods work once again.

How Has This Loss Been Compensated For?

Magic sword, huh? Cool story, bro.

One of the other issues that comes with the Older is Better trope is that it often creates a photocopied setting; each era is just a smaller, less impressive version of the one that came before it. However, if something that made a previous era of prosperity possible is lost or forgotten (whether due to resources, a dark age, or what have you), then ask what people did to replace its loss. What direction did society go in, and how did it change?

If magic lost some of its potency, or vanished entirely except in rare cases, did that lead to a rise in more reliable forms of alchemy? If the method for creating relic shields that could guard against any arrow was lost, did this lead to a change in protections, or a change in tactics? If shimmer cloaks became so rare as to be effectively non-existent, then what replaced them as a status symbol and/or means of personal protection?

While having relics from the past, lost rituals, or ancient rites are fun additions to a story, too often writers forget that subsequent generations don't stay in a holding pattern waiting for those things to be re-discovered. They're going to be moving, changing, altering, and finding new ways to accomplish old goals. Sometimes this means embracing new technologies, and other times it means changing your entire society... but rarely do things stay exactly the same for huge swaths of time.

Even language changes, and a way of speaking or writing that would be quite plain just a few generations ago can feel strange and foreign. After several hundred years of linguistic drift, well, that might be another reason that lost methods remain lost.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!